Having failed in his attempt to induce Annie to remain at home, Gregory resolved that the prayer-meeting should not be one of quiet devotion. Mr. Walton made him, as an invalid, take the back seat with Annie, while he sat with the driver, and Gregory, after a faint show of resistance, gladly complied.
"It's chilly. Won't you give me half of your shawl?" he said to her.
"You may have it all," she replied, about to take it off.
"No, I'll freeze first. Do the brethren and sisters sit together?"
"No," she answered, laughing, "we have got in the queer way of dividing the room between us, and the few men who attend sit on one side and we on the other."
"Oh, it's almost a female prayer-meeting then. Do the sisters pray?"
"Mr. Gregory, you are not a stranger here that you need pretend to such ignorance. I think the meeting is conducted very much as when you were a boy."
"With this most interesting difference, that you will be there and will sing, I hope. Miss Walton, where did you learn to sing?"
"Mainly at home."
"I should think so. Your voice is as unlike that of a public singer as you are unlike the singer herself."